


The Mark of the Banished Prince

by Smolest_bean



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Half Deaf Zuko, Half blind Zuko, Hurt/Comfort, Pyrophobia, Scared of fire au, capturing the avatar without firebending challenge, like 20 seconds after Zuko gets his scar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 12:17:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20291335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smolest_bean/pseuds/Smolest_bean
Summary: There was fear on the air, infernos in his eye, and a scream on his lips.The final item that slashed across his gaze was the midnight black silhouette of his father.





	1. Chapter 1

His world was as incomprehensibly demolished as his face. Except his face hurt like the entire sun had smashed into it. And it didn’t stop tightening and tightening with ceaseless agony. What had inflicted this made him gag on air.

  
Light fluttered through the small room as Iroh opened the soft orange window. It illuminated Iroh as he prepared more bandages. Blood was pooling through the white drapes swathed around Zuko’s head.

  
Zuko’s mother had told a young Zuko that he should list what was wrong so that he could comprehend it.

  
1\. His face hurt more than all the injuries he had sustained in his life combined

2\. His own father had done that to him in front of everyone he knew

3\. Ozai had banished him from his home and family and taken away everything and everyone

4\. The only way to regain his honor was to capture the nonexistent avatar

5\. Zuko was about 87% sure he was deaf in his right ear now

6\. He was currently following advice from a mother who had disappeared almost a decade ago.

  
Zuko pressed his hands against his bandages to prevent his own blood from soaking any further through them.

  
“...Zuko, did you hear what I said?” Iroh’s voice was thick and soothing like honey for a sore throat.

  
Zuko nodded and Iroh moved towards the door.

Panic lurched and unraveled through Zuko’s veins, “Don’t leave” He sat up his bed so that the blood-soaked bandages rubbed against his burn. The pain was like daggers being stabbed into open wounds.  
Iroh took his hands away from the door solemnly.

  
Adrenaline ceaselessly pumped through Zuko whenever he thought of the shadow that had stood of him during the Agni Kai—which was always. Zuko tilted his head carefully so that he could hear Iroh’s soft words more accurately.

“I must get you more bandages”.

“Please don’t,” Zuko hated the rawness of the voice and the rawness of his face as the blood seeped down.

  
Iroh walked back to his table of herbs, “I will make you a dressing then, Prince Zuko”.

Zuko’s anxiety eased slightly—but smaller infinities were still infinite. He snapped his finger in front of his right ear and but heard only silence. Fear and despair burned ardently inside of him.

“Why can’t I—Why—“ Zuko tried to choke to his uncle. One never knew they possessed hope until it died.

Iroh had not pressed his usual wise advice onto Zuko—but instead soft, simple words of reassurance “It’s okay, Zuko,” Iroh said.

  
It was okay Zuko felt like his life had burned alongside the right side of his face—because suffering was going to teach him. Suffering was going to teach him respect. This was all for a reason. Zuko would learn and be better. That had to be true—otherwise his entire life was disintegrating around him in futility.


	2. Mai I Be of Assistance?

Zuko’s horrified screech during the Agni Kai replayed in Mai’s head. Him slouched over the place where his father had scorched a lesson into his face flashed repeatedly in Mai’s mind. Her sweet, optimistic freind in such unquantifiable pain made her feel sick.

Mai slipped through the halls of the castle towards Zuko’s room.

A shrill voice slithered through her ears,

“Planning to confess your love to Zuzu now that he’s soft?” Azula smirked at Mai like a snake poised to strike.

Mai’s blood boiled.

“No, he’s hurt and I want him to know I care,” Mai said evenly as she passed Azula.

“Oh, oh! Can I come Mai? Zuko just needs a little positivity,” Ty Lee bounced up from behind Azula.

“What are you going to do? Cartwheel until he’s mentally stable?” Azula laughed.

Ty Lee hadn’t been at the Agni Kai. She didn’t know about the way he screamed. About the way he begged for mercy.

Yet Mai was relieved she would not have to face whatever state she would find Zuko in alone.

“Have fun with my whiney brother, girls. I have, of coarse, been prohibited by my uncle from watching Zuko wallow in self pity. Poor me”.

Mai scrunched her hands into fists—Ty Lee skipping behind her.

Mai could hear the relentless sobbing as much as five feet from the grey room.

Iroh opened the door to the two girls, “You have visitors Zuko. Mai and Ty Lee”.

“Come in,” Zuko said horsely.

“Zuko,” Mei whispered. His face was wrapped with wads of bandages soggy with blood. His face was stained with tears and hopelessness.

“Mei,” Zuko choked.

“I’m also here,” Ty Lee did a cartwheel somehow in the confined space.

“I need to get you more bandages Zuko, will you be okay?” Iroh said.

Zuko nodded and Iroh left.

“Mei. I’m sorry,” Zuko exhaled shakily.

“You shouldn’t be sorry for anything. We should be sorry for letting this happen to you,” Mei was determined not to display her anguish—what she felt was nothing compared to Zuko. But Zuko’s countenance made her insides crumple. And his scream wouldn’t stop ringing in her ears. She had thought he had died at the time. She touched his hand.

“I’m sorry I spoke out of turn,” Zuko breathed, “And that I got myself banished and hurt”.

“That’s not your fault”

“How’s your face doing?” Ty Lee cut in.

Zuko stared blankly at his hands.

“Hey! Zuko! Would you feel better if I did a double front flip or triple backhandspring? You listening?”

Mai shushed Ty Lee.

“I can’t—,” Zuko’s breath hitched, “I can’t hear in my right ear”.

Mai held Zuko’s hand tighter, “That’s okay Zuko”

“How will I fight the Avatar if I can’t even hear right?,” Zuko said weakly.

“Because you’re super good at fighting and it’ll go great!” Ty Lee said switching to the side of the room where Zuko could properly hear her. How could she remain so oblivious to suffering?

Mai was at a loss for words, “I’m just—I’m just so happy that you’re alive”. And then Mai smiled at him warmly and just a little.

“After tomorrow I might not ever see you guys again,” Zuko’s bandages oozed blood onto the bedsheets.

They sat in silence, and Zuko finally squeezed Mai’s hands back.

The door creaked open and Zuko looked up frantically at the sound.

“I’m sorry for surprising you my nephew,” Iroh said, “But I have some medical supplies long overdue”.

“We can come back later if you want,” Mai said.

Zuko nodded.

“I have a candle; want a candle? You know since it smells a little gorey in here “ Ty Lee said as she kicked up into a handstand.

“Okay” Zuko said as Iroh began to undo his bandages.

~~~

Mai and Ty Lee returned an hour later.

“How can they expect Zuko to recover from this in one day before he’s banished? That’s mean,” Ty Lee pouted, “hopefully this candle will help—Azula lit it for me. She couldn’t have like cursed the fire right? Benders can’t do that?”.

Mai’s heart twisted.

She wished desperately that she could help Zuko more.

Iroh opened the flame-colored door.

“Are we helping Zuko at all? I don’t want to hurt him any more,” Mei said with uncharacteristic vulnerability.

“Sometimes the greatest cure is a good friend ,” Iroh said as lightly as he had spoken all day.

“He meant friends right—I’m here too,” Ty Lee whispered, fidgeting with the lit candle.

Zuko’s right side was now dressed neatly in a cream-colored bandage with no visible blood. He was lying down this time with his eyes closed—and visibly in pain.

“Who is it?” Zuko whispered horsely.

Meanwhile Iroh bended a plume of fire to heat the tea he was preparing for Zuko.

“It’s Mai and Ty Lee,” Mai sat on the side of the bed, “But Ty Lee can leave if you want her too. Or I can leave. Or we can both leave”

A golden amber sphere glistened with the desperation of a wounded animal as Zuko opened his unburned eye, “Stay”.

“I brought you a candle, Zuko,” Ty Lee chirped, “It’s supposed to smell like quote on quote ’the sky’ and ‘morning dew’ whatever that means”.

Zuko sat up against the pillows arranged by his uncle—his eye flicking from the candle to the flame in Iroh’s hand.

His breathing lept into hyperventalating.

Before any of them could do anything, the sound that had haunted Mai ever since the Agni Kai erupted from Zuko’s lips.

He screamed.

**Author's Note:**

> My zucinni wrote this fic and she asked me to post it here! :D


End file.
